Thursday, 2 June 2011

LGBT activists have asked the Venezuelan authorities to investigate the killing of a transgender woman in an exhaustive, immediate and objective manner and without prejudice against her gender identity or the work activity she performed.

Luisa Nicol, an 18 year old transsexual, was killed by a sharp weapon in a well-known hotel in Caracas in El Rosal Varela. Her family was dismayed about what had happened.

Her mother stated:

“Our relationship had always been very good, we would talk very often and I would ask her numerous times to do any other job but the one she was doing. Indeed she was also assaulted and was almost killed with a knife last week."

This is not an isolated case. 30 April two other transgender women known as Ruby (Enderson Jesus Bianconi, 18 year old and identified by her family) and Samanta (still to be identified) were also killed in Caracas.

Luisa's alleged killers have been caught. Apparently they belong to a gang that extorts and exploits gays and transsexuals in the world of prostitution in the streets of Caracas.

The Public Ministry has assigned the case to the Metropolitan Tenth District Attorney Susana Churion.

The activist group Venezuela Diversa says that the high level of vulnerability of the transgender community in Venezuela which is aggravated by the fact that their identity is not recognised. This lack of recognition leads to further violation of human rights: the right to education, health, social security, work, free transit, and decent housing. This means that working as a prostitute in the streets is the only option for survival that many transgender women have.